Thread by @captraman, Position of stars therefore became the most important marker for early humans. [...]

Position of stars therefore became the most important marker for early humans. Movement of stars told them about change of seasons, migration of animals etc.

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But position of stars couldn’t be remembered and taught without some stories connecting them. And that’s why every culture assigned their own names to the constellation of stars in the form of stories.

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The Big Dipper, Orion’s Belt, the Plough, Satparishi were all joined by the earliest of stories humans made by literally connecting the dots.

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The human mind seeks patterns and creates stories to remember and teach those patterns to the next generation.

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Leadership is evolving as times change. From an Authoritarian leader who led with positional authority by starting from the bottom and working their way to the top (1/2)

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to a Coaching leader who can extract superior performance from their teams. E.g. Ramakant Achrekar who himself played only one first class cricket match but produced a legend like Sachin Tendulkar (2/2)

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But the future needs a gardener leader who like a gardener focuses on creating the right environment to allow each plant to blossom in their own unique pace and manner.

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Leading without Authority

The Era of Authoritative Leadership is ending. Future leaders need to learn how to lead without it! "How many people will report to me? And who will I report to?” These two queries pertaining to the...

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Future leaders need FutureSkills like storytelling, leading without authority, ability to “think INSIDE” the box etc.

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Of all these skills, storytelling is possibly the most important one!

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The future is not about specialisation – it is about fusion. For e.g. what kind of company is Apple? Is it a technology company because it makes tech products?

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Or a luxury company because it creates aspirational products?

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Steve Jobs fused his passion for calligraphy (fonts), zen (uncluttered interface) & luxury packaging with storytelling (for all his product launches) to create an unbeatable customer experience.

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Why do we need to know stories?

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A team is nothing but a group of people who believe in a shared reality. And that shared reality is created and sustained through stories.

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Organisations which have superior and tacit knowledge will always win over organisations that don’t have a strong culture, because culture is built through storytelling.

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Stories are very low investment gamechangers. (1/2)

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Stories don’t need expensive corporate films, posters, knowledge management systems or any such investment and yet they are most effective in imparting knowledge and building culture. (2/2)

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Stories help in “cross pollination” ideas from one industry that can be applied into another situation.

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For instance, in a downturn, the real-estate companies will be severely hit, but the education industry will boom. Why can’t real-estate companies convert their surplus inventory into hostels for students?

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Stories help in leading without authority, because storytelling leaders are also teaching leaders and teaching is the best way to lead without authority.

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And finally, it is stories that establish your brand most powerfully.

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Reading is THE most powerful way to learn new stories, skills and experience of others. Any problem you face, has probably been faced by someone before and there is a book out there which can give you the answers.

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But there is so much to read and not enough time! The average reading speed of most individuals is about 200 words a minute. That is about a page of a book per minute.

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Here, let me share a few steps towards increasing that reading speed by several times!

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Firstly, in most books, the main content accounts for just 35-40% of the words. Rest of the words are simply connectors.

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Contrary to popular belief, the brain CANNOT multitask. What seems like multitasking is the brain switching between different tasks which is always suboptimal.

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For instance, try saying this line aloud as fast as you can: 12345678 and abcedfgh

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Now try saying a1 b2 b3 c4 d5 e6 f7 g8 – notice how much longer it takes. That is why absolute focus is the key to learning. When reading, set aside every other distraction. No phones, TV or talking!

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The second key to focus is passionate curiosity. Ask yourself before you read any book – “What’s in it for me?”, "How will I benefit from this knowledge?" Visualise yourself applying it.

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“I have no special talents – I am only passionately curious!” – Albert Einstein

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Fixation, Regression and Sub Vocalisation. Unfortunately, these three bad habits have been ‘taught’ to us. Correcting just these three mistakes will increase your reading speed exponentially!

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Fixation is reading one or two words at a time, whereas the human mind can read entire sentences and even blocks of text in one go. After all that’s how we read signs and posters.

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Regression is reading a line and then going back to reading it again! Usually it’s because we lack the self-assurance that we got it right the first time! There is a niggling doubt that you missed something.

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Sub-vocalisation is when you “say” the words inaudibly or even in your mind. Watch someone read at an airport next time. Chances are you will see their throat moving slightly.

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These three bad habits actually slow us down much like the QWERTY keyboard that was designed to deliberately slow down our typing speed! Yes, that’s right!

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Our brain is far more powerful than we think. It can intuitively fill in the gaps. For isntance you cluod raed tihs snetnece eevn tohugh it was missplet.

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Here's a list of five steps you need to do before you read a book:

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1. Research it on the net, get a sense of what the book is about.

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2. Preread – this step involves reading the books reviews and what others have said about the book.

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3. Listen – most books come with an audio sample chapter in amazon – listen to that.

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4. Watch a TEDx or Google talk about the book. Almost all authors have done a talk about their book covering all the important points.

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5. Lastly skim through the book – not read – but skim. That means you spend less than a couple of seconds on each page. Just look for words that jump out at you, headings etc.

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This five-step process – which should not take more than half an hour now gives you a strong familiarity with the book.

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Now when you read it with absolute focus, - it will almost seem like you have read this book before and if you consciously avoid those three bad habits your speed will increase exponentially.

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REMEMBER – this 5-step process IS NOT a substitute for actually reading the book. It is a process that precedes the reading and speeds up the reading process.

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So, no shortcuts – you actually need to read the book in the end!

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Lastly like any skill, learning fast needs to be practised.

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Practice for an hour a day and you will find yourself learning much faster than before. This even works for technical books or books that require deep analysis.

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Some other advice. Always take notes when you are reading even if you never refer to them. The very process of ‘writing’ activates more synapses in your brain and ‘encodes’ that information much better.

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And that brings us to the end of the first part of this Masterclass on Leadership Through Storytelling! Happy learning! See you in the next workshop in this series!

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